ShelfTrend reviews the heater category on eBay Australia including inventory from online retailers and professional eBay sellers, during one of the coldest...and now, warmest winters in Australian history!
The analysis is based on ShelfTrends Top 500 reporting on the 18th July 2017 for the keyword, "Heater" excluding listings that are auctions, single quantity, multi-variant, not from Australia.
Brand Summary - In the top 500 best match ranked items, there are 76 sellers selling 48 brands, including unbranded heaters.
Of the 76 sellers, just under 20% of all listings are from big mainstream Aussie retailers selling on eBay, holding approximately a third of all available inventory. Despite heavy promotion and advertising, Aussie retailers on eBay are not making as many sales as eBay Professional Sellers in the Heater category.
Heller is the most dominant brand with the most number of listings on eBay, the most available quantity and the most sales.
Although brands like Kogan, Dimplex, Sunbeam and even Dyson have good inventory availability on eBay, their penetration and visibility are not translating into sales. On the other hand, brands like Fenici, Devanti and Bromic hardly register in terms of volume of listings and inventory, but are making strong $ sales.
Heller has the broadest range of heaters
with almost a third of their listings as Fan Heaters, another third as ceramic heaters (wall and fan) followed by oil heaters, radiant fan heaters, fireplace heaters and panel heaters. More than 50% of all of Heller's sales are from their ceramic wall mounted product - which appears to be unique to the brand.
Dimplex relies heavily on radiant fan heater sales
More than 50% of their listings on eBay are fireplace heaters followed by oil heaters, radiant fan and fan heaters. 90% of all Dimplex sales on eBay are for their radiant fan product.
Brand % share of unit sales for 12 months to July 2017.
Heller has 27% share, Fenici 9.5%, Devanti 7.2% and Bromic 6.9%. Heller's share of sales largely comprised of their ceramic wall mounted product, Fenici and Devanti their panel heater offering and Bromic their gas heater.
Price Range Summary by Brand
Brand positioning by the lowest priced SKU offered on eBay Australia. Heller, Fenici, Devanti and Bromic do not have the widest price range on eBay but they have the most compelling product at the right price point to dominate 50% of all units sold on eBay Australia.
Product Type Summary
There are 9 types of heaters on eBay Australia - panel heaters, fan heaters, radiant fans, fireplace heaters, gas heaters, ceramic heaters (wall, tower and fan) and oil heaters.
Panel heaters make up almost a third of all listings and inventory, followed by fan heaters and ceramic heaters.
% of units sold by product type:
- Panel heaters make up 23.8% share of sales with Fenici and Devanti brands a third each of all panel heaters sold.
- Fan heaters are 21.5% share of which BPS is almost a third of all sales with Arlec at 12.7% and Dyson 9.3%.
- Ceramic wall heaters make up 15.6% share of sales all of which are the Heller brand.
- Radiant fan heaters are 13.1% share of sales with Martec, Dimplex and Heller making up 41.8%, 27.4% and 22.8% of sales respectively.
Price range summary by product type
Below is a chart presenting price ranges by product type. Fireplace heaters have the widest price range between $149 to $999AUD followed by gas heaters from $58.90 to $755AUD. Fan heaters appear to have a broad price range, but in fact, Dyson fan heaters skew results with their high price point of $575AUD. Without the Dyson heater, the fan heater price range tops out at $240AUD.
Emerging category trends
The most interesting insight to come out of this analysis is the market entry of the ceramic wall mounted unit priced between $39.95 to $109.50 - competing with the traditional fan heater, radiant fan and oil heater. For that price range, the ceramic wall unit can offer more power as well as a dual season benefit with its cooling fan capabilities.
This level of insight can be derived from ShelfTrend data on the Premium subscription.
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